It's very sad, garynik--big corporations buying up successsful sites.

Same old greed. Small time, one-time idealist site builders becoming instant multi-millionaires all over the place.

Big corporations controlling contents. It's all coming to a site near you.

Great concept and impressive results from the camera.

I'm wary of technology as much as the next (critical thinking) guy but I'm not the universal condemnation type. For me, the ipod and its clones have enabled music to integrate into my life where it once could not have - and that has meant a huge expansion of my musical taste, which has also seen me going to more socially-interactive events such as concerts, etc.

Unlike some devices which completely hook us into work, arguably the cell phone and the laptop computer, the ipod can be clearly argued as being one of the few new inventions that is about a return to art. Deriding it for its headphone-isolation is also a little late, it comes on the heels of portable devices of many years. Not to mention - I've never shirked a conversation for an ipod!

Nice photos though!

Instant gratification!
reading this article it is clear why we have problems getting people to take an interest in anything to do with our society.
Buried in their own world they have no idea , nor are they interested in anyone else's problems.
They will be on their little entertainment machines when the world crumples and never notice.

Well done Bob Preston! Great idea, nice compositions. Images 4,5, and 6 are the strongest, I think. Nice balance.

I believe that Lyall's article deserves a balanced response. I believe someone should chisel it in sandstone or perhaps write on papyrus, thereby rebuking the inherently facile nature of an internet article by contrasting it with something much more arduous and low-tech, and therefore good.

who cares about crap like this story talks about. the times they are a changing, and they have been for years. wake up and smell the bums rummaging through the alley.

From the article:

In every image, the subjects appear entranced by their personal devices, and pay no attention to the world and its many miracles around them.

The same could be said of pictures of people tying their shoes. It's true that people selecting songs on an ipod or texting on a cellphone are focussing their attention to the exlcusion of things around them. That's the nature of focus though, and while I appreciate the idea that ipods and cellphones can isoalte us, they also connect us.

I've walked down countless streets at day and night with music playing and loving the feel of the air and the movement of trees in the wind. I've listened to documentaries on the bus, and while I might look blank and mindless I'm actually thinking and engaged about the world. I might be looking at a tiny screen and tiny keys to text a message, but that message makes it possible for me to join friends in person.

I think the photos have a wonderful feel to them, but the commentary on how people interact with technology and the fact that that requires focus sometimes, and that not everyone wants to be 'pay attention to the world around them' is pretty tired commentary. In these pictures I see different people pulled together by something that has become a cultural icon. It's unfortunate that they aren't happy in 'the right way' for the reviewer.

I'm at a loss to understand how blocking out the sounds of the world around one w/ headphones can "connect people". And texting achieves what exactly that phones and email doesn't?

The shoe tying example doesn't wash IMO. You stop, tie your shoes and move on. But I-podders wander along oblivious to the world while they scroll and select.

Not to put a value judgement on the activity, but I don't understand your assertion that these technologies somehow make human contact easier or better.